In the past, mixed wireless and wired networks have been used to transfer data. One common standard for a wireless network is the standard IEEE 802.11 infrastructure network. In standard use, the IEEE 802.11 infrastructure network provides for a single hop transmission between an Access Point (AP) and a Client through a wireless medium, using a ‘3 address field’ format called the 3A mode frame.
The IEEE 802.11 network will transfer data nominally using a 3A mode frame format which defines 3 address fields for standard usage. These 3 address fields given in the 3-A mode frame represent the Layer 2 Media Access Control (MAC) addresses uniquely identifying the ‘transmitter’, ‘receiver’ and a ‘device’ interfaces respectively. These MAC numbers are unique hardware numbers for each Intelligent Electrical Device connected to a network. The MAC numbers uniquely identify each IED in the network. In an Ethernet Local Area Network, the MAC numbers are the same as the Ethernet address.
The IEEE 802.11 Access Point (AP) when transferring data towards a Client (termination point) will nominally use the 3A mode frame format which defines 3 address fields for standard usage. In this communication direction, the IEEE 802.11 3-A mode frame format stipulates that the ‘transmitter’ field will be the AP address, the ‘receiver’ field will be the Client address and the ‘device’ field will be the address of the original data-producing device on the LAN. The IEEE 802.11 Client when transferring data towards an Access Point will also nominally use the 3A mode frame format which defines 3 address fields for standard usage. In this communication direction, the IEEE 802.11 3-A mode frame format stipulates that the ‘transmitter’ field will be the Client address, the ‘receiver’ field will be the AP address and the ‘device’ field will be the address of the final data-consuming device on the LAN. Although the IEEE 802.11 interface does support a mode allowing 4 possible address values to be used, in both communicating directions only 3 address values are actually transferred between the Access Point (AP) and the Client side when using the standard 3A mode frame. The interpretation of the 3 address fields within the IEEE 802.11 messaging changes depending on which side (AP or Client side) has initiated the communication.
While useful the standard IEEE 802.11 infrastructure (which relies entirely on 3A mode frame transactions) suffers from the disadvantage that each wireless Client can only represent a single IED, such that a number of separate clients all with wireless capabilities, are required in order to communicate with the Access Point (AP) and therefore the other IEDs in the network. This can increase the cost of the overall network by requiring a large number of wireless clients. Furthermore, a large number of wireless clients communicating with a single Access Point (AP) can also decrease the efficiency of the system because wireless transmission across the IEEE 802.11 infrastructure may be slowed down if there is a number of clients all communicating with the same Access Point.
Therefore, the standard or prior art IEEE 802.11 standard infrastructure forms a wireless single hub network where all participating stations will both send and receive frames via the associated Access Point (AP) device. In this manner, the prior art AP operates as a “relay agent” between all participating stations and the stations individually serve as Layer 2 terminations or end point device. In the standard IEEE 802.11 standard, it is not possible to transfer data to and from devices located behind the client in a standard IEE 802.11 network, since the client is normally considered as the termination point in a standard IEEE 802.11 network.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a more efficient system to provide Layer 2 bridging within an IEEE 802.11 infrastructure Point-to-Point (P2P) and Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) network typologies while at the same time keeping the Layer 2 information synchronized to have coherency of all MAC addresses across all of the network and all of the bridges within the overall network typology.